The bodies of two people were recovered after the boat they were on crashed into the New Haven Harbor breakwall, officials said Friday.
The vessel, a 27-foot Sea Hunt center console, was found capsized on the breakwall Thursday afternoon. Authorities believe it crashed there the night before.
The boat had been deemed overdue earlier that day after authorities were informed that two people had potentially gone missing on a Long Island Sound boat trip between Stratford and Norwalk Wednesday night.
The missing individuals had a dinner reservation at the Shell & Bones restaurant in New Haven. Security footage from a nearby marina also showed the two aboard the vessel.
One of their cellphones pinged a tower near the New Haven Harbor west breakwall shortly after 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, officials said.
As part of the search-and-rescue effort, an HC-144 fixed-wing aircraft from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod “flew numerous search patterns over the area,” officials said.
In a 6:15 p.m. update on Thursday, U.S. Coast Guard officials said crews had located the vessel on the New Haven Harbor west breakwall, prompting a missing persons search with Coast Guard boats and aircraft, along with state and local responders.
The Connecticut State Police dive team recovered the two victims later on Thursday and took them to the West Shore Fire District’s firehouse in West Haven.
The two — a man and a woman whose names have not been released — were later pronounced deceased by the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Neither victim was wearing a life jacket, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said, according to the Hartford Courant.
